[New Features] Automated Requests and Auto-Suggested Offsite Venues
Send detailed requests to multiple, vetted offsite venues and receive 20%+ off room blocks, meeting space, and more (all in less than five minutes...seriously)
Happy “Marketplace Monday” everyone!
Jared here, founder/CEO of Offsite, with some exciting product updates.
Create a free account at offsite.com or log in today to check out:
Automated Requests
One-Click Proposals (for Offsite’s venue partners)
Auto-Suggested Venues
The engineering team deployed a killer new feature today (auto-suggested venues) and we simply couldn’t wait to tell you.
Click the Loom below for a 3 minute demo…
Demo - Automated RFPs and Auto-Suggested Venues - Watch Video
Automated Requests
Technically, we released Automated Requests back in October.
But, we had some gnarly bugs to squash and wanted to deploy One-Click Proposals (more below) before getting loud-and-proud about Automated Requests.
When you make an account with Offsite, you can submit a detailed request in a matter of minutes, including:
Number of attendees
Ideal dates
Meeting space needs (including when during the offsite you need meeting space)
AV needs
Ideal nightly room rates
All as “basic info” you’ll be prompted to include when you send your first request through Offsite, if you haven’t completed our intake process through My Offsite on the top right of your account.
Literally, it takes minutes to create an account, search, and submit your first request. Last Friday, a new user to Offsite made an account at 2:37pm EST and submitted their first request for proposal (RFP) only three minutes later at 2:40pm EST.
As soon as they made the request, an email was sent to the hotel (screenshots below for my own demo, so I don’t expose sensitive data for the group above).
If they ultimately book through Offsite, I'm guessing they'll save AT LEAST $8,000 on their team retreat venue, based on their group size, the retail rates for this hotel, and the lower end of what we save users on their bookings (20% on room blocks, meeting space, etc). Pretty cool, right? 🤠
One-Click Proposals
When Offsite’s venue partners receive RFPs from Offsite, they can now click a special link in our emails to quickly fill out detailed proposals for our users.
Our hope is to reduce the back-and-forth so offsite planners like yourself can quickly submit requests, receive detailed proposals (in 24-48 hours or less), and book spectacular offsite venues while saving 20%+ on room blocks, meeting space, F&B, etc.
Doesn’t seem like a big deal, but in an antiquated meetings, hospitality, and travel space, you wouldn’t believe how much time this saves both venue partners and Offsite users. Once hotels reply, it generates detailed proposals for users in their dashboard.
Auto-Suggested Venues
This went live TODAY. Once you submit your first request, Offsite will now send an Automated Request to the first venue you like and also auto-suggest three (3) additional venues similar in location, price, size, vibe, etc (and then send out requests on your behalf to those properties).
You can see this in action through the demo, and it’s exciting to us because:
It saves you even more time in sending RFPs to vetted offsite venues that could be perfect for your upcoming offsites…
It allows you to more successfully negotiate discounts on room blocks, meeting space, F&B, activities, and more with venues because you’ll now have multiple venues vying for your business.
For our venue partners, we’re able to loop them into winnable RFPs because we’re suggesting opportunities that users are already searching for (incentivizing them to answer as fast as possible and provide the best deals they can).
Upcoming Releases
We are about to add Speakers and Facilitators to our marketplace, so that whenever you’re looking to bring in subject matter experts to your offsites, a handful of vetted and affordable options are only a few clicks away.
Additionally, we’re adding Travel Providers to our marketplace, so you can work with our trusted flight partners, travel visa experts, and on-the-ground transportation vendors anytime you’re in need.
Finally, we’re curating select Event Producers to add to our marketplace, so that even if you don’t hire Offsite for end-to-end planning support, you can still access trusted event production staff for “day of” support, hourly support (if you only need a few hours of help on activity research, for example), or have unique projects like holiday parties that Offsite doesn’t currently service.
We can provide you with introductions to all these vendors right now (simply reply to this email), but with upcoming releases, you’ll be able to access these resources through a free Offsite account whenever you need them.
We’re committed to saving you as much time, money, and stress as possible when you are planning offsites in 2024 (and beyond).
If you haven’t already, please make an account and test out these new features!
Feature requests? Bugs? Questions about how to plan the perfect offsite?
Reply anytime (or email me at jared@offsite.com) and I’m happy to help.
Thank you,
-Jared
PS - If you haven’t already, subscribe to The Offsite Blog below for agenda templates, budgeting spreadsheets, and more thought leadership like this post around offsite planning, remote work, increasing employee engagement, and more.
And of course, if you’re ready to plan your 2024 offsites, make a free account at offsite.com to search our curated marketplace with hundreds of amazing offsite venues, 20%+ savings on room blocks, meeting space, and more.
Plus, we offer end-to-end offsite planning services if you want a “done for you” experience. See why companies like Buffer, Webflow, 15Five, Linear, Metabase, Hampton, and others trust Offsite for their team retreats.
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